Hi I'm Vikki thank you so much for joining me today. I work at IWM, the
Imperial War Museum in London, as a curator. To help you learn more about
history from home, IWM has asked me to share some of the incredible
stories that we have in our collection. Now what I mean by collection is the
objects, art film, photographs and documents that we have collected to help
us understand more about what it was like for different people to experience
war and conflict. Now usually I would be talking to you from inside the museum
but today as you can see I'm inside my flat and it's a lot smaller than the
museum - there are no aircraft hanging from the ceiling or tanks hiding behind
my bookcase. Nope pretty sure there's none there. And today I'm not going to
talk to you about the war itself but what happened when the Second World War
ended. I have lots of stories to tell you about how different people reacted to
the news and I'd like to share them with you. Now as I'm making this film it's
getting very close to the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second
World War - also known as VE Day. You may have heard people talk about VE Day or
you might be lucky enough to have a family member who remembers the end of
the Second World War. But what exactly is VE Day? Well it stands for Victory in
Europe day and that's the point when Germany surrendered - that means they
could no longer go on fighting - and the war in Europe was over. But actually
there were two ends for the Second World War.
That sounds strange right - how can the war end twice? Well the war was still
being fought in Asia and the Pacific against Japan and it would continue
for a few months and we'll talk about that second ending a little bit later on.
But first let's talk about that first ending which is known as VE Day as we
said Victory in Europe day. Now on Monday the 7th of May 1945 a news flash came
out on the radio to announce that war was over. The press rushed to get papers
printed with information. Nowadays you'd probably hear about
exciting news from maybe the internet or the TV but in the 1940s it was all about
the radio and the newspapers. Now the radio announcement said that the next
day, May 8th, would be known as VE day and it
would be a public holiday so nobody would have to go to work and there would
be celebrations and parties in the street. After six long years of war, many
people couldn't wait to celebrate. People all around the country came into the
streets singing and dancing. They brought tables and chairs from
their homes into the street to make giant party tables. They built
decorations out of bunting and flags so that they could hang them up and make
everything bright and colorful. Prime Minister Winston Churchill even made
sure that there was enough alcohol in London for everybody to celebrate.
Bonfires could be seen across the whole of London which was really unusual
because during the war there had been a nationwide blackout - that means that
everyone had to keep their houses dark and no visible light could be seen so
the German aircraft couldn't locate cities on the ground. But now with the
war over bonfires created beautiful light. Now at IWM we have a friend called
Alan who was a schoolboy during the war and he remembers these bonfires in
London. Alan had a paper round the next day and so he didn't actually celebrate
late into the night on VE Day because he wanted to get up early to make sure that
everybody got their papers with the news of what was going on. But he does
remember in the morning going around kicking the embers of the bonfires to
make them keep burning as much as possible. Nowadays it would be quite
dangerous to have lots of bonfires in the street that's for sure. Now some of the
biggest street parties happened in London and I want to tell you about how
two best friends, Cynthia and Joyce, celebrated VE Day by jumping in the
fountains at Trafalgar Square. Now do you know where Trafalgar Square is? It's
in the centre of London and it's by the Houses of Parliament. There's a very tall
statue of the naval hero Admiral Nelson and there are fountains with big lion
statues there as well. So Joyce was 18 at the end of the war an Cynthia was 20. The
Imperial War Museum staff were able to speak to Joyce a few years ago and she
told us about the story of how her and Cynthia celebrated VE Day. They met in
1944 when they had joined the Women's Land Army in Surrey. Their job was to
work in the countryside keeping the farms running and getting
food for the people of Britain while the men were away fighting
at war. Cynthia and Joyce would have learned lots of new skills - maybe
learning to drive a tractor, or rat-catching, or milking a cow. They would
have worked long and hard hours but they wouldn't got paid as much as
men. Now Cynthia and Joyce had heard about the amazing street parties that
had happened at the end of the First World War and had made a vow to each
other that if they were to survive this war they would travel to London together
to celebrate. So on VE Day, bank holiday on the 8th of May 1945, the two girls
took an early train to London. Their first stop was St Paul's Cathedral,
where they went to say prayers for the family members that they had lost. They
eventually reached Trafalgar Square in the centre of London where celebrations
were in full swing. The roads were closed to traffic and there were policemen but
they looked the other way as people climbed on Nelson's statues. Now Joyce
remembers that there were thousands of people and a dancing conga line that
started snaking its way around the statues in the fountains. It was a warm
day on VE Day in 1945 so Joyce and Cynthia took off their shoes, they rolled
up their trousers and they stepped into the fountains and the water. Now two sailors
saw Joyce and Cynthia having fun and decided to join them.
One other sailors climbed on to the fountains and he dived into the water
causing a huge splash and got joy soaking wet but she got her own back
because she splashed him back as well. There were lots of journalists and
reporters in Trafalgar Square on VE Day and many of them actually captured Joyce
and Cynthia dancing in the fountains. This famous photograph shows the joy and
the excitement of the celebrations in London in 1945. So have a think about
your local area. Is there a town or a village where everyone would go to
celebrates a big event? Do you have a town square maybe or a big statue? Maybe
it's a park or a big open space. But we should also remember that at the end of
the Second World War not everybody felt like celebrating. Many
people had lost their homes, their friends, and in some cases their family.
Our next story is about a girl called Kitty who as a child had been evacuated
out of London to Blackpool away from the bombing raids. You might have heard my
friend Ngaire talk about Kitty who comes into the museum often. Well for
Kitty VE Day was a painful reminder of the things that happened during the war.
When she had been sent away Kitty had been separated from her family who she
missed very much and just before the end of the Second World War and the VE
Day celebrations were announced, Kitty's father sadly was killed when he was
fighting as a soldier in Italy. So on VE Day, as she looked out of the window at
the street parties below, Kitty's mum said "don't think you're going down there,
we have nothing to celebrate". Her father's suit was still hanging in the bedroom
and Kitty remembers thinking about how her dad would never be able to come back
and wear it. Kitty's story shows us that wars do not end on one day but there are
lasting consequences. Another person whose war didn't end suddenly on VE Day
was Gerald, a British pilot who'd been taken as a prisoner of war when his
plane had been shot down and he was captured by German troops. Gerald was very
ill in the camps and had an operation on his tummy. Prisoners had very little food
to eat so they became creative with food rations sent to them in Red Cross
parcels. Gerald remembers a Polish prisoner trying to make wine from sugar
and raisins, which probably tasted yuck! And men also played cricket in the camps
to keep themselves fit. Although the Germans had left the camp a few weeks
before VE Day, Gerald was still there waiting for transport to bring him home.
On VE Day he remembers sitting in one of the prison block buildings listening to
the VE celebrations on the radio and he remembers crying - worried about his
journey home and how long it would take and waiting to see his family again.
He was also excited for the chance to eat some of his favourite foods
he hadn't had in a while while he was in the camps like oranges and apples and
white bread. Now Gladys, a young girl who had been evacuated to a few places
around the country - Kent Wales and Yorkshire - had returned to
London by 1945. Gladys remembers her sister telling her excitedly that the
war is over but she actually accused her sister of lying because Gladys realised
that the war was still carrying on against the Japanese in Asia and the
Pacific and Gladys felt sad for the men who had to keep fighting and wouldn't be
celebrating VE Day or going home to their families. But
Gladys does remember another celebration a few months later in August
when she got to eat fish paste sandwiches. Do you remember that we said
that there was a second ending to the war? Well the celebration that Gladys is
thinking about was on the 15th of August 1945 and we call this celebration VJ Day.
Now this one means Victory in Japan Day when Japan surrendered and stopped
fighting. Now once again people began to celebrate that the war was over
across the whole world. When Australian soldier Alan Potter came home to Perth
on VJ Day, his father was so pleased that the family were all back together
again and he decided to call it Victory Potter Day instead. Now Alan's
family met him at the train station but Alan actually didn't recognise a lot of
his family because he hadn't seen his younger brothers in five years and they
had all grown up and when he was taken back home
Alan remembers kissing the ground at the entrance to his house to celebrate being
back there again. For everyone who survived, their lives have been changed
forever. VE Day and VJ Day marked the end of the war and that soldiers sailors and
airmen would soon be returning home. But just because the fighting was over
didn't mean that everything had been fixed. Patricia, a British school child
and evacuee from Kent, remembers thinking that as soon as the war was
over she would be able to have all the bananas and ice cream that she wanted.
But she did have to wait a while. She thought she'd be able to go to the shops
and buy new clothes and eat sweets straight away because she couldn't do
this during the war but rationing, which is a restriction on the amount of foods
that you could buy, continued until 1954. It has now been 75 years since VE Day so
here is my challenge to you, why not plan your very own VE Day celebration street
party but in your own home! First you to think about where your party is going to
be - is it going to be your kitchen, maybe your lounge, or your balcony or garden if
you have one? And what food are you going to have? Maybe some fish paste sandwiches
like Gladys? I don't think that's what will be on my menu. But did you know that
fish and chips were never rationed during the war because
so popular - now that would make a yummy feast. You could also create a playlist
of your favorite songs. My favorite wartime song is Please Leave
My Butter Alone. And you can find some examples of wartime songs on IWM's website.
And how about the games and activities - what are you going to play? Maybe it'll
be a musical chairs or musical statues. Do you know how to play those ones? And
finally how are you going to decorate your party? Well you could create some
bunting or some paper chains out of newspaper or magazines. Kitty, who we
spoke about earlier once made paper chains at Christmastime during the war
by cutting newspapers into strips that could then be made into interlocking
loops as a paper chain. But her mum reminded her not to use too much
newspaper because they needed to use some as toilet paper because during the
war there was a paper shortage. Now I've got some bunting behind me here
which you can see but luckily mine isn't made out of toilet paper. Okay everyone
that's me done for now, thank you so much for listening to my stories about Cynthia
and Joyce, Kitty, Gladys, Alan and Gerald and the end of the Second World War.
If you have any questions at all, post them on Facebook or Twitter and I'll do
my very best to answer them for you. And finally, next week you'll meet my friends
Rebecca and Paris and they'll be talking to you about the theme of art. So
definitely make sure you tune in then. Okay have a great week
thanks so much - goodbye!
you